Screw cap remover



April 7, 1959 D. K. LARSON SCREW CAP REMOVER Filed July 25, 1956 INVENTOR. Doro //y/ A. [5/2900 BY United States Patent SCREW CAP REMOVER Dorothy K. Larson, Spokane, Wash. Application July 23, 1956, Serial No. 599,583 1 Claim. (Cl. 81--3.4)

My invention relates to an improved cap remover for bottles, etc. which is adapted to remove screw caps of various types. It is well known that such screw caps often stick so tight that they cannot be removed by gripping them with the hand and applying a turning force. I have developed a simple effective device for this purpose which has proven to be particularly successful in removing all screw caps that stick.

It is the purpose of my invention to provide a screwcap remover which comprises an elongated piece of thin elastic rubber tubing which is wrapped about the cap to provide more than one layer of tubing and is then twisted in a direction to remove the cap.

The screw-cap remover and the method in which it is utilized are illustrated by the accompanying drawings and described more fully hereinafter.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front view of the screw-cap remover;

Figure 2 is a view in side elevation of the screw-cap remover with a part thereof in section;

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a half portion of the screw-cap remover with the material shown in cross section adjacent to the hanger tab;

Figure 4 is a plan view of a bottle screw cap with my improved cap remover thereon ready to remove the cap; and

Figure 5 is a perspective view partly broken away of the cap remover on a bottle cap with a human hand indicated by dotted lines in position to apply turning force to the cap remover. I

Referring now to the drawings, the screw cap remover is shown as comprising a tubular rubber member which has a hanger tab 11 secured thereto about midway between its ends. This tab preferably is of a rubber coated fabric and it is provided with an opening 12 so that it can be suspended on a book 13 or other support. The rubber tubing 10, to be effective for my purpose, must be open ended and flattened, but the interior surfaces have to be treated so that they will not adhere to each other. The addition of finely divided powder material indicated at 14 in Figures 2 and 3 of the drawings,

is suflicient to prevent the surfaces from sticking to each other. The ends 10a and 10b may be partially closed but they must be free to permit air to enter. A suitable material for the rubber tube 10 is pure gum rubber with the interior having the fine powder adhering thereto. The tube 10 is soft and flexible so that it naturally flattens as indicated in Figures 1 and 2.

Referring now to Figures 4 and 5, these figures illustrate the method by which the device is used to remove bottle caps. The remover is always used wrapped in such a fashion that at least two layers of tubing go around the bottle cap which is indicated at 15. As illus-- trated, the double piece of tubing 10 is wrapped around the bottle cap 15 about one and one-third times so that two-thirds of the bottle cap has a double thickness of the tubing wrapped around it and the other one-third has four thicknesses. By grasping the wrapped around tubing in the manner illustrated in the Figure 5, the user of the device can apply a turning force to the cap 15, which force is transmitted through the several layers of the tubing.

It appears that the provision of the several layers of elastic material, separated from each other so as not to adhere, enables one to build up much greater turning force on the cap than he can do with the hand alone or with a solid elastic piece. For example, the mere adhering of the inner surfaces of the tubing to each other makes the device substantially ineffective when compared with the tubing in which the inner surfaces are kept from sticking to each other. I do not understand fully the technical reasons why this should be so, but repeated actual tests have proven the fact. It seems that the application of the turning force to the outside of the several layers of tubing causes a creeping of the rubber as between layers and final application of this entire force to the cap 15 with no slippage between the cap surface and the adjacent rubber.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

A screw cap removing device comprising a piece of elastic rubber tubing of a length sufficient to wrap more than twice around the screw cap, the tubing being thin enough and soft enough to flatten under its own weight, the interior surfaces of the tube being treated to prevent their sticking together.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 627,371 Willis June 20, 1899 747,679 Bliss Dec. 22, 1903 1,422,302 Parker July 11, 1922 1,976,623 Monroe et al. Oct. 9, 1934 2,422,715 Blake June 24, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS 19,033 Australia Feb. 21, 1935 

